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. 2015 Mar;45(1):1-5.
doi: 10.5624/isd.2015.45.1.1. Epub 2015 Mar 13.

Lateral pterygoid muscle volume and migraine in patients with temporomandibular disorders

Sérgio Lúcio Pereira de Castro Lopes  1 , André Luiz Ferreira Costa  2 , Thiago de Oliveira Gamba  3 , Isadora Luana Flores  3 , Adriana Dibo Cruz  4 , Li Li Min  5
Affiliations

Lateral pterygoid muscle volume and migraine in patients with temporomandibular disorders

Sérgio Lúcio Pereira de Castro Lopes et al. Imaging Sci Dent. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: Lateral pterygoid muscle (LPM) plays an important role in jaw movement and has been implicated in Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Migraine has been described as a common symptom in patients with TMDs and may be related to muscle hyperactivity. This study aimed to compare LPM volume in individuals with and without migraine, using segmentation of the LPM in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the TMJ.

Materials and methods: Twenty patients with migraine and 20 volunteers without migraine underwent a clinical examination of the TMJ, according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMDs. MR imaging was performed and the LPM was segmented using the ITK-SNAP 1.4.1 software, which calculates the volume of each segmented structure in voxels per cubic millimeter. The chi-squared test and the Fisher's exact test were used to relate the TMD variables obtained from the MR images and clinical examinations to the presence of migraine. Logistic binary regression was used to determine the importance of each factor for predicting the presence of a migraine headache.

Results: Patients with TMDs and migraine tended to have hypertrophy of the LPM (58.7%). In addition, abnormal mandibular movements (61.2%) and disc displacement (70.0%) were found to be the most common signs in patients with TMDs and migraine.

Conclusion: In patients with TMDs and simultaneous migraine, the LPM tends to be hypertrophic. LPM segmentation on MR imaging may be an alternative method to study this muscle in such patients because the hypertrophic LPM is not always palpable.

Keywords: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Migraine Disorders; Pterygoid Muscles; Temporomandibular Joint Disorders.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Three-dimensional model of the segmented structures using the ITK-SNAP software in an anterior superior view shows the lateral pterygoid muscle (a, b), the condyle, the coronoid process of the mandible, and part of the mandibular ramus (R).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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